A very pleasant middle aged man presented to the ER after an unfortunate episode with his power drill.

He had lost the normal chuck that is used to change drill bits, and so he has put a bent screw into the chuck receptacle instead. When picking up the drill, he accidentally activated it by pulling the trigger. By the way, this happened to be an electrician’s drill, which is very powerful, able to bore through wall studs as if they were made of butter.

Well, of course when the drill turned on, the screw started spinning,

and it happened to have gotten tucked  under the man’s wedding band.

Thus, as the screw spun, so did the man’s ring finger,

completely pulling it off of his hand.

All that remained attaching the finger were some tendons. Surprisingly, there was very little blood, but you can imagine the pain.

Unfortunately, because of the extensive damage, this was not a re-attachable finger. Had the finger been severed with a sharp knife, a microvascular surgeon may have been able to re-implant it.

Since this case, I always recommend removing jewelry before working with power equipment.